The Council of Canadians Brandon-Westman chapter held a town hall meeting on electoral reform on September 15.
Prior to the town hall meeting, the Westman Journal reported, “Dr. Scott Blyth, the leader of the local chapter that was formed last summer, says the registered non-profit organization stands firm on the notion of changing the current national electoral system. ‘From our perspective, proportional representation – and there are several different models of that – would be ideal. We’ve certainly pushed for that for years.'”
Winnipeg-based Council of Canadians organizer Brigette DePape was at the town hall and tells us that about 40 people were present for a lively discussion.
During the last federal election, the Liberals promised, “We will make every vote count. We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system. We will convene an all-party Parliamentary committee to review a wide variety of reforms, such as ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory voting, and online voting. This committee will deliver its recommendations to Parliament. Within 18 months of forming government, we will introduce legislation to enact electoral reform.”
Now various processes are underway including a cross-country tour with the federal minister of democratic institutions Maryam Monsef, and the opportunity to submit a brief, complete an online consultation, and request to appear before the multi-party House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform.
In terms of the timeline for electoral reform, upcoming dates include:
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August 29 – October 1 – the federal minister of Democratic Institutions will travel to twenty-two communities to discuss electoral reform -
September – the Special Committee on Electoral Reform’s ‘national engagement process’ including written submissions, committee travel, online suggestions begins -
September – MP town hall meetings -
October 1 – deadline for MPs to send their submissions from the town halls to the committee -
October 7 – deadline for the general public to complete an online submission, request to appear, submit a brief to the committee -
December 1 – the committee reports to the House of Commons -
May 2017 – the deadline for the Liberals to introduce legislation on electoral reform -
October 21, 2019 – the next federal election under a new electoral system
You can read more on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform here. The schedule for Monsef’s cross-country consultation tour can be found here. While the Liberal election pledge presented the choices as “ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory voting, and online voting”, media reports have indicated the choices up for discussion at the Monsef consultations are “mixed electoral, proportional representation and plurality or majority systems.” Our ally Fair Vote Canada is working on a fact sheet to help navigate this and we will share that widely when it becomes available.
The Council of Canadians has long-endorsed proportional representation and is critical of the current first-past-the-post system.
